maps

Apple Maps is the subject of complaints again, this time from the Taiwanese defense ministry which has voiced its frustrations that secretive military sites are clearly visible in the iOS 6 mapping app. "We'll ask Apple to lower the resolution of satellite images of some confidential military establishments the way we've asked Google in the past" ministry spokesperson David Lo said this week, though Apple is apparently yet to have formally received a request to blur out the installations.

TomTom has launched its Navigation app for Android, with offline driving directions, 2D/3D views, voice guidance and the promise of mapping updates for the lifetime of the software. TomTom Navigation for Android - available in North American, European, UK & Ireland, and other geographical versions - also includes TomTom HD traffic data, for mapping out routes on less busy roads, using live and historical traffic trends. However, the mapping app still isn't perfect - you may well find you can't actually use it at all.

You may be thinking that Apple's iOS 6 Maps fiasco is leading to decreased demand for the iPhone 5. According to Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, you would be wrong. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that in a note to investors, Wu assured that demand for the iPhone 5 is still riding high, despite user concern about the sad state of Apple Maps.

Nokia and Oracle have inked a deal that will see the Finnish company's mapping expertise integrated into Oracle's applications, opening the door to custom geo-location implementations in enterprise services. The agreement, financial terms for which have not been confirmed, will see Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer using Nokia Location Platform tech and individual Oracle users offered the chance to license the mapping system for their own systems.

Earlier today, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a public apology to users of the company's new Maps app. A good portion of the letter addressed the different alternatives that users could take advantage of while Apple was busy improving their own maps. The company is now making it even more convenient to download and install a maps app that isn't Apple's own.

Apple had a bad situation on their hands when it became apparent over the past week that their new non-Google "Maps" app appeared to fall short of expectations, but Tim Cook took this situation today and flipped it on its head entirely. It's not that Cook apologized for the situation - the situation being that Apple Maps (without Google) isn't as perfect as they wanted it to be - it's that inside this apology, he encouraged users to use other products while they remain patient for Apple Maps to improve. Tim Cook took a situation where Apple could easily have said "just chill out" to the public and said instead, in so many words, "we're confident enough in our own product that we'll literally tell you to use other solutions while we prove to you that you'll want to return to us when the time is right" - this is rare in the tech industry.

Apple has been under some extreme fire lately with their new Maps app on iOS 6. A lot of users have been reporting that the new maps are inaccurate and extremely buggy, especially the new 3D flyover feature where melting architecture was the bane on user experience. Apple CEO Tim Cook has brought up the problems and issued a public apology on the matter.

Maps and mobile-navigation extras are high-profile news right now, given the Apple Maps saga, and now Garmin has inked a deal with Nokia to break its esteemed pedestrian tools off of Symbian and Windows Phone. Garmin Urban Guidance will be added to its StreetPilot Onboard and Navigon apps for iOS, and to Navigon for Android, as an in-app purchase, introducing Nokia-powered mass transit and walking directions complete with points-of-interest.

Google Maps for iOS may not be due to hit the iPhone 5 and other iOS 6 devices until the end of the year, but Apple fans will reportedly be able to use Street View on their devices far sooner. While Google's work on an iOS 6-compatible native version of the mapping app isn't expected to be ready for release until later in 2012, a browser based Street View for Apple's gadgets is roughly two weeks away, the NYT reports.

This whole Apple Maps and Google Maps fiasco has gotten pretty crazy. After iOS users found out that the new Apple Maps pretty much sucked, they were left wondering why Apple ditched Google Maps in the first place. Many believed it had to with the crumbling relationship between the two companies, but it turns out the answer is as simple as it gets: Apple left Google Maps because it didn't have turn-by-turn navigation.